


Close Encounters of the Bird Kind

by macabre_trepidation



Series: Foxes and Kings, Swords and Things [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Crossover, Fluff, Gen, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 06:23:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9535676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macabre_trepidation/pseuds/macabre_trepidation
Summary: “They had just met a few hours before, but Neil couldn’t help feeling like two worlds had just crashed together.”(get it, BIRD because of the RAVEN boys ahaHA) Told in Neil’s perspective; the foxes vs. Gangsey. A lot of fluff, a lot of out-of-character mannerisms and actions, and a lot of bad writing but I tried. I always had this idea that they would meet at Sweeties, so I wrote it. (this is my first pic, lease go easy on me) And sorry it’s so long; I realized I had to continue the conversation between the two groups, or else it would feel even faker and forced than I actually made it! Its long, I know. But I hope you guys like the story, have fun!





	

Losses were tough, but they were easier when the team was there. Andrew drove all the Foxes to Sweetie’s that night, and though they were all tired, none were more upset than Neil. He hadn’t scored a single goal that night. He was tired and disoriented, but that didn’t give him an excuse.  
Nicky must have seen how tense Neil was, because he leaned forward to put an arm on Neil’s shoulder.

“Hey man, it’s not the end of the world. We get it, you have other things on your mind.” Surprisingly, Kevin joined in too.

"Yeah. Just don’t fuck up next time.” he grumbled from the back. Neil couldn’t help but smile. He could hear jealousy in his words, and he knew it was because Andrew had kicked him out of the front for Neil.

“Pussy.” was all Andrew said. Neil and Andrew were actually okay for the moment. Neither of them had gotten into bad trouble since the night with Neil’s father; five months was a good amount of time for them, and they had been the best months of Neil’s life. They hadn’t exactly been eventful, but that was the best part of it; Neil didn’t have to look over his shoulder for The Butcher every twelve seconds, or distance himself from anyone, or plan an escape route for every room he walked into. He stayed with Andrew and Kevin and Nicky and Aaron that whole summer, relaxing and doing what they loved to do; play Exy.

Tonight it looked unusually empty, with only an old convertible stained an ugly shade of orange sitting in a spot.

“Must be fans of ours, am I right??” Nicky said, breaking a silence that Neil hadn’t noticed. There was something about this car...Neil couldn’t explain it, but he felt something was different today. The others obviously didn’t feel this way, giving Nicky raised eyebrows and side-eyes and crossed the threshold of the store.

A cool breeze mixed with a sweet custard flavor greeted Neil at the door, and immediately all four boys standing to the left of him tensed up. It took Neil a total of seven seconds to realize what was wrong.

Andrew’s group had been sitting at the same back corner table since they had started coming to Sweeties, which had been expanded to two booths when they invited the other Foxes. This night, they weren’t there because Dan had yelled at everyone to get some rest after the game, as it had ended unusually late. Everyone else had listened, Andrew had not. So as tradition went, they had all come to Sweetie’s before going to Eden’s Twilight.

But this time their usual booth had been taken by five strangers.

There were four boys and one girl, and she looked like a cross between a hippie and a punk rocker, without the makeup. The asian boy on her right smiled with perfect white teeth, but his eyes were cunning and untrustworthy, like he would sell his soul for an ice cream cone in a second. The boy on the other side of the girl smelled like money. His hair looked professionally done, his glasses rested perfectly on an unblemished face, and his rolex watch looked real.

Neil hated him instantly. He had known people like this, people who chose to live off their inheritance and never work a day in their lives. They all looked exactly like this boy. However, the people he had seen had never hung out with people quite like this group. The boy next to him had a shaved head and a tattoo that peeked out and snaked out his exposed shoulder and neck. The boy to the final boy seemed to be admiring as well. This one looked less expensive or dangerous than the others. His eyes were weary and carried dark circles under them, but nevertheless he seemed engaged in whatever conversation they were having.

Neil was still taking them all in when his thoughts were interrupted.

“What the shit,” Aaron yelled at them, silencing their conversation immediately. Their heads whipped around at the direction of the noise. “This is our booth.” Aaron could somehow put emphasis on every word. Nicky, however, obviously couldn’t care less about the situation. “Aaron, do you really have to pick a fight with everyone we talk to?” he asked. Kevin gave him and gave him a crazed look, while Aaron just looked intently ahead at the other group.

The boy with the shaved head turned to them all with a look on his face that said, is this guy serious? He turned in slow motion to his friend on the outside and jokingly said, “Quick Adam, sic ‘em!” and pushed him out of the booth. Everyone including the man named Adam laughed, but it quickly died out when they saw the pack of foxes coming toward them. Adam climbed back into the booth and looked back and forth between the two groups nervously.

Andrew cocked an eyebrow and simply but forcefully said, “Move.” When no one did, The boy in the middle of the booth tried to stand up but was unsuccessful, and was half-crouching to avoid completely moving the table when something suddenly changed in him. Maybe he sat up straighter, maybe the light caught his face a certain way, but whatever it was the boy turned into a young god in the span of two seconds. Initially, Neil had thought that this boy looked like one of those rich white frat boys. Now he looked like a businessman, presidential. The type of person you would think was famous if you saw him walking down the street. He looked at Aaron apologetically.  
“Now, can’t we just get along?” he said simply. The girl next to him looked impatient, and after a moment she tried to shoo the foxes away with frantic hand movements.

“Just find another table! There’re two more exactly like it right there. Jeeeez.” She spoke with a slight southern drawl and pointed to the two remaining booths identical to theirs. Aaron and the girl glared at each other for what felt like years until Kevin finally stepped between them.  
“Can you get through one night without picking a fight?” asked Kevin. Aaron held her gaze for a moment longer before scoffing to the side and rubbing his scruffy chin.

“Whatever,” he said, and then turned back around to the man in the middle. “get a better leash for your bitch.”

Before Aaron could even face the other way, the man with the shaved head was on him in an instant. How he got around the table after being squished by the other boy, Neil had no idea. The presidential man had time to yell, “Ronan!” but not enough time to stop him. The man named Ronan grabbed Aaron’s shirt and punched him in the nose, and had gotten in three swift punches before another pale arm reached up to him and clamped strong fingers around his neck and pushed him to the wall.

No one spoke or moved, and Andrew’s face was unwavering. Andrew had grabbed him so quickly Ronan didn’t even have time to react, and Andrew’s other hand crossed to twist one of Ronan’s hands back into a position that made it impossible for him to move. Finally he leaned in close enough to tighten his already fast grip on Roann and said, “Don’t touch my things.” Adam was the first to react, and tried to hit and shout at Andrew, but to no avail.

Neil realized he had to step up now. He was the only one who could semi-calm Andrew down, so he cleared his throat.  
“Andrew.” he said softly. Andrew said nothing but turned his head a quarter of an inch in the direction of Neil’s voice. Neil took another breath, but before he spoke fabric moved and something went ‘snap!’ Ronan was out of the hold and took a fighting stance with his fists up and a scowl on his face, ready for a fight.

Andrew stared back at him for a moment, and then he did something Neil had never seen him do. His brow was furrowed and his nostrils flared, and he tilted his head ever so slightly to the left. For only a moment, Andrew looked truly confused with the situation. A second later he was back to being himself, stone-cold Andrew, the farce everyone but a select few knew him by.

“Um, what the fuck?” Nicky’s voice cut through the silence and Neil finally saw what was so strange to Andrew. Ronan’s left pinkie finger was bent all the way back. In an instant, the whole table was standing around the man, glaring at the other foxes, ready to fight.  
“Ronan!” One of the new boy’s voices screamed his friend’s name and pushed past the foxes. It was Adam, the tired boy. He grabbed Ronan’s wrist, careful not to touch his broken finger. “Are you okay?”

It was finally the asian boy’s turn to speak. “Shit, is it broken?” He gaped at the disfigured hand and lunged over to one of the tables and grabbed several napkins and two dirty spoons, and proceeded to create a makeshift splint.

The girl, seeing what he was doing, took her black hair out of the ponytail and handed the boy the hairbands. He loosely wrapped them around the finger, careful not to touch it too much. As this was all happening, Ronan was observing Andrew with the same blank stare Andrew gave everyone. He didn’t blink, and after the other boy was done wrapping his hand, a silence fell between the two groups. It was the kind of silence that created noise in its absence; it crowded the room and begged to be noticed.

“Who are you?” Ronan asked, finally breaking the silence after what seemed like hours of staring and waiting.

“Leaving.” Andrew turned around with his usual disinterested stare and turned around, but he ran into an unlikely obstacle as he did. Kevin Day towered above Andrew, but it never seemed that way. “Are you out of your goddamn mind? You just broke this guy’s finger! We’re driving him to the hospital now.” He shoved Andrew towards the other boys, who didn’t move.  
“Chill, I’m fine.” Ronan squawked. The presidential man made an exasperated noise and gestured to his hand. “Shut up, Dick. I’m not going to a fuckin doctor.”

Kevin narrowed his eyes. “Are you stupid? Your hand is wrecked!” Neil suddenly realized the importance of the man’s hand to Kevin, and how it compared to Kevin’s own injury from just over a year ago. “If you don’t get that fixed right now, it’ll never be straight.”  
Ronan peered at Adam, who was looking keenly back at him. Ronan finally exposed his teeth with a sly smile to him. “I think I can manage.”  
He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath.

“Ok! So Ronan’s being stupid, Gansey’s being a dad, and somehow everybody is ok with it. What’s new? Oh yeah, you guys. Hi.” The girl acknowledged the foxes with a skeptical look. This girl was so small yet her very presence was powerful. It reminded Neil of someone else. He glanced at Andrew and cleared his throat.

“Hi. I’m Neil.” he said, and awkwardness nipped at him and he shoved his hands deep into his pockets. Finally Nicky said, his name with a wide smile and extended his hand to whomever cared to take it. The president's man grabbed it and took a step in their direction.

“Richard Gansey. Nice to meet you. Kinda.”

“Under better circumstances, of course,” Kevin added. “I’m Kevin Day.”

“No way!” The asian man’s mouth curved into a smile and his eyes lit up. “From exy?” Kevin simpered, and gave a small nod. Of course he knew Kevin; if you knew Exy, you knew Kevin, and everyone knew Exy.

“Henry Cheng. I knew you looked familiar!” Gansey gave him one last look and guided their attention to his gang with a mere glance in their direction. He raised his eyebrows at Ronan, who glared back at him for a moment and gave a loud elongated groan like a teen answering to his parent.

“Ronan.” was all he said, and he caught eye contact with Neil and narrowed. His blue eyes bore into Neil’s and held it. Neil looked away a moment later, not wanting to start another fight. He kept staring until Adam spoke, and turned to him immediately.

“Adam.” He said sheepishly, like simply his name was too daring to add. Neil turned away from him and looked at the Minyard twins. They had the same stance, arms crossed and eyes directed lazily out in a different direction. Neil huffed, realizing they would stay stubborn like this unless they were given a shove of approval, and that shove had to be Neil.

“This is Andrew with the armbands, and Aaron’s the ugly one.” the jab at the identical twins broke the awkward tone of the encounter and everyone chortled. Andrew gave him a sideways glance over Kevin’s shoulder, but said nothing. After a time Neil realized he was staring at Andrew’s neck, and had been for far too long. He turned away quickly before anyone noticed. “We’re, really sorry about the both of them. We’ll drive your friend to some help. If he’d take it.” The final girl merely gave a short smile, but finally spoke.

“Blue.” she said.

“You’re what?” asked Kevin.

“Blue.”

“No, I meant your name.”

“It’s Blue. My name is Blue, like the color.”

“What the shit? What were your parents on?”

“I live in a family of psychics.”

“Seriously?” Nicky was the most interested. Blue shook her head like it was a sore subject, so Nicky took the hint and stayed silent. Gansey cleared his throat.

“Are you actually still fighting us for a table? Because it seems puerile; childish.” Gansey quickly corrected himself.

“I honestly don’t care, it’s really not that big of a deal. Keep it. We can sit somewhere else. Again, sorry.” Nicky sounded sincere, so Neil was about to turn away when a voice stopped him.

“Wait, are you guys kidding? It’s Kevin Day-- and they’re the Foxes! Do you guys even listen to me when I watch Exy? Ronan!”

Ronan gave an exasperated huff and threw his arms up. “I don’t really give a shit! Dick, my finger’s fine, do you guys wanna sit here? I don’t care.”  
All the foxes turned to Andrew for an answer. He was the one who cared the most about where they sat, who cared no matter what anyone said. He met Neil’s gaze, and shrugged. “Sure, what the hell.”

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Wait, so you’re actually psychic?” Nicky leaned as far across the table as he could towards Blue. Ronan and Andrew’s encounter had felt like eons ago, and now both groups had dragged a few chairs over and squeezed into the one table. Everyone was a little too close for comfort, but they had gotten used to each other in the past few hours. Blue sighed, like she’d been asked the question a thousand times, but said, “my family is all psychic, I’m not.” Nicky looked a little down, but Gansey’s face lit up.

“She’s not psychic, but she amplifies their powers. If you ever wanted to find something, she’s like the metal detector.” He looked giddy with excitement.

Aaron looked confused. “What do you mean, ‘if you need to find something?’ Like if I needed to find my keys she could find them?” Gansey shook his head and his eyes twinkled.

“What do you know about Welsh kings?” Even before he finished the sentence, the other half of the table was so enraged by the response that they all started throwing used napkins at him. Gansey smiled with his mouth open and rolled his eyes lightly, like he had known this would happen.  
“No one knows your dead kings, Gansey!” Adam joked, but Kevin cut in earnestly.

“You mean like Llywelyn the Great? He was my favorite to study in my Classical and Medieval European History Course.” The other gang’s smiles froze and their faces turned ugly and confused as they realized Kevin was serious. He looked around at them dismissively. “What? I’m a history major. I know all the greats.”

Gansey looked personally offended, like he had been stabbed in the back multiple times. “What? Are-are you serious? Are you ranking Llywelyn ap Lorwerth, who waged war in Wales for most of his rule, over Owain Glendower?” Gansey’s left eye was twitching. Kevin shrugged.

“I see, so you’re just gonna completely ignore the Last War of Independence?”

“I’ll ignore it, unless you think actually does something significant!”

“Ohhh, you--”

“Wow, I’ve never seen Gansey at a loss for words.” Ronan’s short jab at him made Gansey blush, which made Blue laugh and bury her head in the crook of his neck.

Neil looked at Andrew’s own neck again. He seemed stiff and unwelcoming. Neil expected this with the change; Andrew hated new people.

Ronan put his hands behind his head. “Jesus, get a room you too.” Andrew rolled his eyes inconspicuously, but Ronan saw. “What? I can’t make fun of my friends relationships without being criticized?” he asked. Andrew simply looked to Neil, who caught his breath in response to the simple action. What did he need? Backup? Whatever it was, Neil would give it to him. Ronan gestured to Andrew with his thumb. “Is this guy fuckin mute or something?” Neil shook his head.

“Just let him be.”

"Fine, bitchass,” Ronan said in Andrew’s direction, obviously hoping to provoke him, but Neil knew it would never work. No one could tell Andrew Minyard what to do.

Adam stared between the two.

“Are you guys dating?” That made Andrew respond. He opened his mouth formed a thin line and he squinted at Ronan.

“We--” started Andrew.

“Yeah,” Neil said lazily. “We are. How’d you know?” Adam shrugged.

“I’m just really good at reading people I guess.” was his simple answer. Nicky had his hand to his heart and his eyes shining toward the ceiling.  
“That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Please, get married.” Nicky tried to embrace Andrew, who immediately swatted him away with a strong arm and a look that said, ‘don’t ever touch me again.’ Unfazed, Nicky turned to Blue. “kids, am I right?” he said, which made her snort. It was a loud, genuine laugh. Not the type of laugh girls only used around boys they liked or whatever. She didn’t care about how she looked or acted, she was confident enough to appreciate herself for who she was. She reminded him a lot of Renee and Allison and the other Foxes in that way. Hearing her laugh made Neil want to laugh too.

Neil could have stayed and talked with them for hours, but the manager came over to them to tell them that they were closing up soon. The group looked at the clock and were all shocked to see that it was 2 am. Kevin looked at the other Foxes.

“We fucking missed Columbia. Honestly I’m not even in the mood now.” Andrew let out a breath and put his thumb and index finger to his forehead.

“Yeah, I guess not.”

“We should just stay at the house for tonight.” said Nicky. Then he tilted his head towards Gansey and gave Neil a look. Neil furrowed his brow as Nicky did it several more times. Nicky finally gave Neil an exasperated look. “Du bist unmöglich!” he said to Neil, and turned to the other group. “Where are you guys going after this?” he asked. The five of them looked at one another. Then Blue cleared his throat.

“Well honestly, we were gonna, uh, drive through the night. We were on our way to see an old friend.” she told them. Nicky gave Kevin the same look he had given Neil, but Kevin seemed to have understood what he meant.  
“Oh, what the hell. Sure.” he said.

“I mean, yeah! It’s really up to Gansey. He’s the one driving anyway.” said Blue looking at him knowingly. Something in her eyes told Neil that this was not up to Gansey at all, but already decided by Blue herself. Gansey looked at his watch and grinned.

“Okay.” he said. Nicky clasped his hands together. “Then it’s settled,” he said. “you guys are staying over.”

“Would we get to meet Erik?” Adam asked innocently. Neil froze for a second but relaxed when he remembered their long conversation about Nicky’s boyfriend (if he could even call it that; it was mostly Nicky ranting about Erik and the others nodding along). It had been the first thing they had talked about.

Nicky chuckled. “Sadly no, he’s visiting his family this week in Germany. But next week, meine Geliebte!” Nicky pumped his fist in the air.  
Andrew gave Nicky a death glare, and Nicky saw it. “What?” he asked. “It’s the least we can do after you broke this guy’s finger.” he gestured to Ronan, whose crooked smile was falling off of his face. Andrew sighed.

“Fuck it,” he said. “But I’m getting drunk when we get back.” Nicky smiled cheerily to the others.

“Great! I’ll lead the way.” he walked model style to the door without paying the bill. Gansey dropped a large sum of money onto the table as they all started to walk out the door to their respective cars.

Neil didn’t know what to think of the other group. He was raised to trust no one, and had just barely opened up to his own team. But these people seemed different. Neil felt like he could trust them for some reason. They had just met a few hours before, but Neil couldn’t help feeling like two worlds had just crashed together.

**Author's Note:**

> Yayyy sappy ending. I MIGHT make more depending on the feedback I get and what other paths I can take, so stand by!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment!


End file.
